GAO Finds DOT Has Not Reported to Congress on Multimodal Freight Office Since 2023
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has concluded that the Department of Transportation failed to meet a core statutory obligation tied to its Office of Multimodal Freight Infrastructure and Policy: periodic reporting to Congress on the office’s activities, staffing, and program administration. The finding, released April 20, 2026, carries immediate weight as lawmakers prepare to deliberate on the reauthorization of federal surface transportation funding, which expires at the end of fiscal year 2026.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 required DOT to notify Congress within one year of enactment and every 180 days thereafter, covering the programs and activities the office administers, current and projected staffing levels, and whether any DOT offices or functions had been consolidated or eliminated. DOT officials met with congressional staff in June and September 2023, the only substantive engagement on record. Since those briefings, no periodic updates have been transmitted. Officials cited limited staff and competing priorities as the reason for the gap.
The Multimodal Freight Office was formally established in September 2023 and has since operated with a headcount ranging between four and nine personnel, depending on the mix of full-time career officials, rotational detailees, and political appointees in place at any given moment. As of December 2025, two political appointees, two career officials, two detailees, and an executive assistant comprised the full roster. The office went without a confirmed Assistant Secretary for most of 2025.
GAO’s single recommendation directs the Secretary of Transportation to report to Congress on the office’s activities since September 2023, with particular attention to freight-related grant involvement and staffing trajectory. DOT agreed with the recommendation. The department’s response, signed by Assistant Secretary for Administration Dr. Anne Byrd, described the office’s achievements since establishment and expressed willingness to provide the overdue congressional update.
The reporting gap is consequential in practical terms. The Multimodal Freight Office has taken on responsibilities across a wide span of freight policy since 2023, including advancing an updated National Freight Strategic Plan, publishing a draft National Multimodal Freight Network, assuming oversight of state freight plans, and coordinating federal responses to freight disruptions such as the Red Sea Shipping Crisis and the 2024 Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse. Congress has had no formal accounting of any of it. With reauthorization approaching, the absence of that record narrows the legislative field of view precisely when it needs to be widest.